Museo Musings

Quick!  When I say MUSEO PAMBATA --what's the first thing that comes to mind?

Not this, that's for sure.
But believe it or not, this is the first sight that floors you the minute you walk through those old-world Museo Pambata gates.  Museo Pambata has evolved.  No wonder it still maintains its status as One Of The Official Go-Tos For Elementary School Field Trips to this day.  So unlike The Manila Zoo, a giant MUST in its heyday... now grasping at straws to keep up with new players like Avilon Zoo and Manila Ocean Park.  So unlike The Planetarium which died a quiet, sorry death even before the SM Science Discovery Center got a chance to blow raspberries at it.

Museo Pambata, on the other hand,  still has its game on with newer, better hands-on educational and entertainment areas.  And the interior design is just awesome!  Check out the embossing on this wall!

My kids took part in table-top earthquake, tornado, and air pressure simulations here.  Earth science has never been this interesting.

How about Anatomy?  They learned about bodily functions by running through a long length of cold, grumbling intestine!

They saw actual x-rays of broken bones.

They saw the actual progression of food to poo.

And they even had a little (or huge!) heart-to-heart.

While we're on the subject of body parts, there's also an area that plays up the different senses.  Along with this genuine foot-command audio piano was a hodge-podge of optical illusion exercises.   This place needs a little bit of work.  But A for effort, nonetheless.

At the Community area, they were let in on the lives of our neighborhood helpers.  Barbers, fruit vendors, breadmakers.   The highlight was getting on a fire truck, of course.

There's an aquarium (not that exciting)...

And a sports area (ok, this one's exciting!), too.

As a grand finale, culture was reintroduced to my children with artifacts from the Spanish era.  There were also miniatures of historical buildings and galleons.  How cool is that!

All these for only P100 a pop!  And we didn't even get to go to a couple of other rooms because lights out were already upon us.

All-in-all, amidst every new theme park sprouting about like wild mushrooms, Museo Pambata is still a worthwhile place to go to.  It's new and nostalgic at the same time.  For that kind of schizo experience, I say it's worth every cent.